Paddlers power onto B.C. Games podium

Photo courtesy of CanoeKayak B.C.

Pemberton paddlers (from left) Lauren Phare, Dayna Goochey, Pascha Protter and Jenna Spencer fight to the finish in a canoe race at the B.C. Summer Games in Langley last week.

After only a few short months of training in canoeing and kayaking disciplines almost entirely new to them, the contingent of Pemberton-area paddlers who made it to the B.C. Summer Games weren’t sure what to expect from themselves as they set out to compete amid 2,461 of the province’s best young athletes.

They didn’t know how they might fare as they competed in a full slate of events in Langley between Thursday and Sunday (July 22 and 25) in the waters of the Fraser River. The canoe and kayak competitions were a bit of an unfamiliar quality for the Games, too, as the sports returned to the event this year after a hiatus of more than 10 years.

Then the paddlers from Pemberton, D’Arcy and Mount Currie went out and stood on the podium more than 20 times in solo and team competitions in canoeing, kayaking and outrigger canoeing.

“They did exceptionally well,” delighted team coach Ben Groulx of Pemberton said on Monday (July 26), noting that the athletes “by far exceeded” their own expectations.

Twelve paddlers from the Pemberton program made up almost the whole team for the Vancouver-Squamish zone, joined by one athlete from North Vancouver. Each of them had at least one race in which he/she returned to dry land with huge smiles on their faces, saying, “I rocked that one,” Groulx said.

“Before we went out there to the Games, I had said in my mind, ‘the goal for them is to have a good time,’” said Groulx, a Laoyam Eagle dragon boat paddler and outrigger canoe competitor who was himself coaching his first major event.

Having all of the paddlers make it to the finish line upright with smiles on their faces “will be a successful weekend for me,” he told himself.

“We did get our goal, the one I had wanted – everyone had an amazing time, I had a great time – and on top of that we came back with our heads high and our necks low, with the weight of the medals,” Groulx said with a smile.

Pemberton’s Dayna Goochey was one of several multiple medallists for the team, capturing gold medals by herself in the Female K1 500-metre Train to Train event and the challenging solo skills competition in kayaks, and winning the 500-metre open outrigger canoe race in a team with Sean McGuire, Lauren Phare, Pascha Protter, Kalio Sittlinger and Matt Tuck of Pemberton and D’Arcy.

Goochey also won a silver medal by teaming up with Phare for the Female C2 500-metre Train to Train race, and finished third in two other team events, racing with Protter in the Female K2 500-metre Train to Train competition and with Thomas Johnson, Jenna Spencer, Phare, Sittlinger and Tuck in the 2,000-metre open outrigger canoe event.

“It was really good competition, and it gave you a lot of self-esteem,” Goochey said Monday. Her determined solo kayaking win really helped her confidence, and she fought hard to succeed in the difficult skills competition, which required paddlers to complete tasks that tested their balance in the easily tipped kayaks, such as jumping out of the boats and climbing back in.

While completing the tough test of standing up in the kayak, Goochey said, “I was shaking the whole time… I can’t believe I actually stayed up.”

She said she and Protter fought hard for their third-place kayaking result, nearly placing second even though they hadn’t practiced together before. But the success of the Pemberton paddlers in their outrigger canoe races was the one thing that came as little surprise, as their strong dragon boating background and higher level of outrigger experience helped.

In the race where they won gold, “we had a really, really strong team,” Goochey said, crediting Tuck’s steering and the powerful paddling by her teammates.

“Outrigger was the first boat that we started practicing in… I had no doubt whatsoever that they would be successful in outrigger,” Groulx said.

Overall, the great experience has inspired Goochey to want to continue canoeing and kayaking, and she admired the level of competition at the Games.

“It was pretty amazing, and I’d like to get to be as far as some of those other people,” she said of the level of competition at the Games.

Tuck was another multiple medallist, winning gold in the Male K1 500-metre Train to Train race and silver in the Male Slalom K1 Open event, plus three team medals. Groulx remembers his performance for another telling moment too, from Tuck’s first race of the competition, the Male C1 2,000-metre Open event.

“He flipped his boat twice, but he somehow managed to climb back in and make his way all the way to the finish line. That was a very brave thing to do,” Groulx said.

He also recalled an exciting men’s K1 race that nearly saw Pemberton paddlers sweep the podium, until leader Eldon Finck flipped his boat mere seconds away from the finish line.

“Everyone’s heart broke” for him, Groulx said, but they considered him the winner, while other Pemberton paddlers achieved gold and silver medals.

Other top-three results for Pemberton’s paddlers:

• Jenna Spencer, gold in Female Slalom C1 Open, silver in Female Skills Competition;

• Pascha Protter, silver in Female Slalom K1 Open, bronze in Female C1 500-metre Train to Train;

• Kalio Sittlinger, silver, Male C1 500-metre Train to Train;

• Dalton Pehota, silver, Male Skills Competition;

• Braden McGuire, silver, Male Slalom C1 Open;

• Sean McGuire, bronze, Male K1 500-metre Train to Train;

• 10 top-three results by two-, four- and six-person teams involving Finck, Goochey, Johnson, Braden and Sean McGuire, Liam Miller, Pehota, Phare, Sittlinger, Spencer, Tuck and North Vancouver’s Eric Fast.

Also in the B.C. Summer Games, Whistler’s Sarah Lepine finished fourth with the Vancouver-Squamish squad in the women’s rugby event.

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